An Ontario judge reduced the prison sentence of a permanent resident convicted of a violent sexual assault, ruling that his near-certain deportation would make his punishment more severe.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Gillian Roberts sentenced 31-year-old Sergio Reyes Loor to four years in prison for sexual assault causing bodily harm, despite finding that five years would otherwise have been a fit sentence.

“The conviction will have devastating immigration consequences, making any punishment I impose more severe than it otherwise would be,” Roberts wrote. “As a result, I decrease the sentence to four years.”

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Reyes Loor, an Ecuadorian permanent resident who first came to Canada in 2015, was convicted after Roberts found he sexually assaulted a severely intoxicated woman at his Toronto apartment in April 2023.

The woman remembered only fragments of the assault. Roberts found beyond a reasonable doubt that Reyes Loor knew she was too intoxicated to consent.

The injuries were severe.

“She was bruised all over, and the skin of her genitals torn,” Roberts wrote. The judge found Reyes Loor had taken advantage of the woman's condition to “violently sexually assault her,” adding that he bit her, did not use a condom and caused significant physical and psychological injuries.

The Crown sought five years in prison. According to Roberts, defence counsel also agreed five years would be appropriate based on the facts as she found them, although counsel disputed those findings and launched what Roberts described as a “shockingly sexist and misogynistic attack on the complainant.”

Reyes Loor maintains his innocence and has no previous criminal record.

His lawyer told the court that if the conviction stands, Reyes Loor will lose his permanent resident status and be deported.

Roberts acknowledged that the seriousness of the crime meant a sentence avoiding immigration consequences was out of the question. However, she concluded that deportation itself should still be treated as a collateral consequence when determining a proportionate sentence.

“The circumstances of this case are far too serious to impose a sentence that will not have immigration consequences,” Roberts wrote.

Nonetheless, she reduced the sentence by one year, saying the “near certain immigration consequences” would make Reyes Loor’s punishment harsher than it otherwise would have been.

Under federal immigration law, permanent residents convicted of serious criminality can be found inadmissible to Canada and removed from the country.